Too Many Zooz Phillips Backyard Weekender, Victoria BC, July 20

Too Many Zooz Phillips Backyard Weekender, Victoria BC, July 20
Photo: Lindsey Blane
You got the sense, watching New York City's Too Many Zooz, that their practices at home have pretty much the same energy as their festival performances. The so-called brass house trio from the Big Apple features Leo Pellegrino on baritone saxophone, Matt "Doe" Muirhead on trumpet and David "King of Sludge" Parks with a bass drum augmented by tambourine, woodblock, cowbell and other percussive things by the look of it. Sludge dropped the mad beats, while Leo P delivered the bass lines, and Matt Doe led the melody, perfectly creating a clear homage to electronic music forms as acoustically birthed by sheer human power.
Together, these cats were lightning in a bottle — mad vibes. If you sent these guys strolling through the grounds of Shambhala doing their thing, like a gaggle of pie-eyed pipers, you could probably challenge the British Columbia record for longest conga line.
Leo P was the biggest ham of them all. About 15 minutes into their set, he hit the dankest brown note, then licked his baritone and went into convulsions. Otherwise, he was seen moonwalking, kicking some running man shit, and stabbing out cock thrusts in his shiny silver shorts, if he wasn't throwing a hand in the air while keeping his punchy sax going with the other.
Granted, the sound was a little thin for the space, somewhat overwhelmed by the percentage of loud talkers in the crowd. They needed more amplification, but the sound guy was pushing it to the cusp of feedback as it was, so full credit for giving it all they had.